Brady takes blame: 'Name of game is execution'

Monday

Jan 21, 2013 at 6:00 AMJan 21, 2013 at 9:38 AM

The Ray Lewis victory tour continues, regrettably at the expense of the Patriots. The legendary linebacker, who announced his retirement prior to the start of the playoffs, will close out his landmark 17-year career on the biggest stage the NFL has to offer after his Baltimore Ravens knocked off the heavily favored Patriots, 28-13.

By Rich Garven TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

The Ray Lewis victory tour continues, regrettably at the expense of the Patriots.

The legendary linebacker, who announced his retirement prior to the start of the playoffs, will close out his landmark 17-year career on the biggest stage the NFL has to offer after his Baltimore Ravens knocked off the heavily favored Patriots, 28-13, Sunday night in an AFC Championship rematch at Gillette Stadium.

The Ravens are headed to New Orleans to take on the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII on Feb. 3 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Get ready for the Harbaugh boys.

“It really wasn't good enough,” coach Bill Belichick said. “It wasn't as good as the Ravens tonight. That's why they're moving on and we aren't. They were just better than we were in really everything. We're obviously disappointed we didn't win.”

Say what you want about the Patriots' defense, but this one falls on Tom Brady & Co.

The league's top-scoring offense had put up 28-plus points in 13 of 17 games before Sunday's season-low total after being shutout in the second half.

You can bet Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo, he of the “gimmick offense” tweet, had himself a good laugh afterward.

Forget about the 428 yards and 28 first downs. The more telling stats are three turnovers, all in the fourth quarter as the Patriots unsuccessfully tried to cut into a 15-point deficit, and a 1-for-4 effort in the red zone.

“Whatever we did we didn't execute very well,” Brady said. “The name of the game is execution and if you don't execute well against a good team you're not going to come out on the winning end.

“We stayed on track for the most part, avoided negative plays,” he continued. “But they made it tough on us. They're a good team; they have a very good defense. They kept the pressure on and we just didn't really stand up to the challenge.”

Unlike the last few meetings between these NFL heavyweights, this one wasn't decided at the last second. It was effectively over with 11 minutes to play after Anquan Boldin pulled in his second touchdown pass of the game to close out the scoring.

There would be no stirring comeback from Brady. Rather the Cadillac of Quarterbacks led a sputtering offense that saw its final four drives end with a fumble, on downs, an interception and another interception.

The Patriots' had two other drives in the second half. Both ended with a punt.

“We got behind in the second half there and became one dimensional,” Brady said after going 29 of 54 for 320 yards while becoming the NFL's all-time postseason passing yardage leader. “We just couldn't string together enough good plays to get into the end zone.”

The most glaring example of that came at the end of the first half.

After taking a 10-7 lead with their only touchdown of the game on 2-yard pass from Brady to Wes Welker with 4:18 left in the first half, the Patriots forced the Ravens into a three-and-out as big play defensive end Rob Ninkovich came up a sack.

Taking over at the Baltimore 38, the Patriots advanced to the Baltimore 10. The key call: a direct snap to running back Danny Woodhead on fourth and 1 to keep the drive alive.

Three plays later the Patriots found themselves facing first and goal, 10 yards from netting another seven points and putting some serious pressure on an aging Ravens' defense that had been on the field for 174 snaps in playoff wins over Indianapolis and at Denver.

They had a timeout in their pocket, 26 seconds to play with and all the momentum.

Brady dropped back to pass on first down, saw a wide-open lane on the left and opted to take off. Make that plodded off.

It was the first of two bad decisions.

The notoriously slow-footed Brady gained 3 yards and burned 22 seconds before finally calling time. The Patriots had no choice at that point but to attempt a field goal, Stephen Gostkowski booting a 25-yarder to make it 13-7 while leaving another four valuable points on the field.

“We wanted to try to get up there and clock it and have time to run a play and have the timeout to kick a field goal,” Belichick said, dismissing any thought of calling time as soon as Brady slid to safety.

Coincidence or not, the offense never got untracked after that. Now Lewis is headed to New Orleans and Brady is left to ponder another championship-less season.